The Spatial Interface (Image Courtesy of Spatial)
According to the firm, the new Web viewer uses Spatial’s 3D InterOp suite of tools to give users Web-based access to 3D files that are commonly used in fields such as AEC/BIM, CAD, CAE, CAM, robotics and more. In addition, the new viewer has been built to render models, no matter how complex, with precision and speed.
To achieve these results, Spatial’s engineers have been using WebGL to render 3D objects imported to its interface. Not only is WebGL an effective library for rendering both 2D and 3D objects, but because it’s a standard set of tools used by most browsers, users can take advantage of their favorite browser to view files.
“Spatial has worked diligently to deliver a simple, easy-to-use interface for users to be able to load their 3D models and go,” said Brian Rohde, senior product manager responsible for online and visualization at Spatial. “[W]e focused on best practices to ensure we delivered the best performance possible. As a result, large models can be viewed in a matter of seconds.”
Although users can’t modify models in the Spatial viewer, the fact that the tool can be used on any hardware platform from mobile devices to workstations means that collaboration on projects can happen anywhere. Whether you’re working onsite as an architect or examining a milled prototype to see if it meets spec, flexible viewers like this one from Spatial are making engineering a more collaborative endeavor.